


Chords in the Hearts of the Most Reckless

by saltylikecrait



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Lightsaber Battles, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-04 21:06:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16354304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltylikecrait/pseuds/saltylikecrait
Summary: Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe'sMasque of the Red Death.Ready to take up the cause again, Lando Calrissian hosts a most unusual celebration. The guests are ready to party and for a little romance, but someone decides to show up uninvited.





	Chords in the Hearts of the Most Reckless

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Finnrey Fridays under the theme: masquerade. This oneshot was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's _Masque of the Red Death._

The second Intergalactic War had taken its toll on the galaxy. Never had the New Republic thought they would ever face something so devastating and destructive. Within months, the First Order had wreaked havoc upon the Outer and Middle Rims, slowly working its way into the Core worlds. But despite the feeling of inevitable decimation, the Resistance had claimed a few small but defining victories in the name of hope.

But Lando Calrissian, ready to once again take up the cause, had made an official alliance with Leia Organa. Old friends that they were, Lando decided that the best way to celebrate the pact and the Resistance’s latest victory was by throwing a party that would put all other parties to shame. He wanted to make it a light-hearted occasion, to allow the Resistance to let loose even for one night and to honor his late friend who would have loved to have been there.

The party was thrown on Bespin, in Cloud City. The venue had, arguably, some of the best panoramic views of the city and Lando made sure that he brought in some of Bespin’s best talent and best event atmosphere to entertain the guests. The security, he assured, would be tight. No First Order spy could find a way in.

And the theme of the event, it was announced to the excitement of many, was _masquerade._

It was a grand scene, the masquerade. Lando had everything planned to the most minute of details. There were seven rooms in the grand suite and each was color coded to create a striking environment. The first room that the guests would encounter was blue and if a guest traveled from the entrance to the far end, they would find themselves in rooms of this order: blue, purple, green, orange, white, indigo, with the very last being shrouded in black and decorated with crimson paneling.

When the guests arrived, they were in awe of the décor and each guest gravitated towards the room where the color and entertainment and food and drink appealed to them the most.

Under his half-mask that shined with white and carefully painted with black and gold vines around the trim, Finn tugged at the sleeve of his dark red suit and looked around nervously. The point of his mask was so that his friends could find him, but he wondered if he would be able to find any of them when some costumes were so elaborate.

Rose was the easiest to spot. He knew that the only person that could be under that fathier-inspired mask was her. The mask itself was simple, white and gold, but along the forehead, two gold molded fathiers were depicted as galloping. Her dress was short and checkered in bold blue and white. It reminded him of the racing colors they had seen on the track in Canto Bight. She made her costume based on her own theme, and she wore it well. It was fun and vibrant, much like Rose herself could be when she wasn’t tossed into the seriousness of war. She even convinced Finn to dance with her at a lively tune. He was a little embarrassed by his lack of dancing skills, but he had fun all the same.

Poe was the next to be found, but that was because he found Finn. BB-8 would have been a dead giveaway, all the same. His mask was wolfish and painted a dark silver. A loth-wolf, Finn recognized. Animals seemed to be a common mask theme. Poe had also asked a couple of people to dance, mostly members of Black Squadron, but there had been a few lonely individuals he invited out of politeness. Finn found the gesture to be a little sweet, but he also found that Poe could read others in a way that Finn could not. He seemed to be able to figure out who wanted to dance but could either not find a partner or was too shy to ask, and who just wanted to be left alone. He didn’t badger anyone.

It looked like BB-8 had also been given special treatment. Poe had attached a small, feathered ornament off of its antennae. Finn was still learning binary, but he could tell that the droid was proud of its own costume and rolled around the floor to each of the guests to show it off.

But there was one person Finn was looking for in particular and the person he was most nervous about finding. He looked up and down the rooms, but found no sign of Rey. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps she had declined the invitation and felt a little disappointed that if that were the case, he would not get the chance to ask her to dance. Most of the party was informal, and the guests seemed to be more interested in the drinks, but in the white room, the music often changed into a tune suitable for a dance with a partner.

Then Finn spotted her back in the orange room, sampling a trio of cheeses on a small platter. Finn laughed at himself for not thinking of looking for her around food sooner, but he knew it was her by the three hair buns she preferred.

He approached her and noted her dress. The back was cut low, held up by cross-straps. The reveal of her skin came almost as a shock to Finn, who had never quite glimpsed the obvious strength of her back muscles and found himself almost in too much awe to look away. The color of the dress was a pale tan color, tinted with a shimmery pink. It reminded him of the sands of Jakku as the sun hit it just right. 

But it wasn’t until he called her name and she turned around to face him that he realized that Jakku was, in fact, the inspiration of her look. Her mask featured the shape of a stylistic sun, pale and shimmery like her dress. The front of her dress wrapped around her in a crossed pattern, reminding Finn of the worn out clothes she wore when they first met.

And despite himself, Finn found that he was captivated by her.

“You look good.” She smiled and held the platter out to him, which he grabbed a cheese cube from. 

“Thanks,” he replied. “You look, well… I’ve never seen you like this, Rey. You’re beautiful.”

She might have blushed, but the darkness and the orange tint of the lighting hid her normal complexion and he could not see a noticeable difference. Bashful, maybe, was a better description, and to hide that embarrassment, she stuffed her mouth full of another bite of cheese. Finn tried the cube he grabbed from the platter, noting the smoke-salt taste that reminded him of something that he could not quite place his finger on. It was like recalling a long-forgotten memory of a similar tasting food, but of what, he had no idea. The First Order had placed a lot of items on their mess hall menu over the years, but nothing as extravagant as anything served at this party.

They remained quiet for a time, Finn allowing her to finish her plate because he knew how important the concept of enjoying food was to her now that it was plentiful and tasted like something worth savoring. When she finished, he stood up, ready to ask her to dance over in the white room, when the bell of the ebony clock in the dark room at the far end of the penthouse chimed, ominous and deep. It was an antique and had been installed long ago, Lando insisted, but it had this peculiar sound that made everyone momentarily stop in their tracks each hour for a moment. It even seemed to echo over the loud music and conversation, something that many would not have believed was possible.

But the moment the echoes faded, the rooms came to life again and Finn resumed his task.

“Rey, will you dance with me?” He held out his hand, hoping that she would not reject it the way she had on Jakku.

And to his joy, she took it.

The hallways were crowded and filled with the joy of celebrating living as he led her to the white room. He could tell that Rey was shocked that he had selected this room to dance with her, obviously initially thinking he would have taken her to one of the more colorful rooms filled with a heavy beat. There was no official description of each room, but it was obvious to each guest that each room had a different emotion that the décor was trying to evoke. The white room, elegant and subtle, decorated with white roses and strings of light, and almost as quiet as the black room at the end of the penthouse, was a room for romance.

But despite that, Rey did not stop him or ask him if they could go to a different, more lively room. In fact, by the look on her face – even halfway hidden under her mask - she was overjoyed that he had selected this room to dance with her in.

The music of the room, played by a live band, was smooth and at an easy tempo to sway along to. Perfect for couples or people wanting to take it easy for a while.

Rey was the one to make the first move, placing one of her hands on Finn’s shoulders and turning herself so they were face to face. He smiled at her as he placed his hand on her waist and laced their fingers together with the hands that were left free.

The danced together for a while, taking the occasional break to walk around the penthouse to see what everyone else was up to. Poe ended up in a rousing game of sabacc while Rose had found her own entertainment telling stories to the newest volunteers about the reason behind her costume.

It might have just been Finn, but when he passed Lando Calrissian, Rey’s arm looped through his as they tried to stay close, he could have sworn that Lando winked at him under his violet mask.

They returned to the white room again, just in time for the ebony clock to chime midnight. The music and the chatter ceased and everyone stopped in their places again, uneasy, as they waited for midnight to pass.

And as they waited for the last chime of the bell to fade away, some guests began to notice a towering figure dressed head to toe in black. No one had seen this guest before, and as the figure made his way through the blue room, the first room, whispers and rumors started to fill every corner. Murmurs of surprise came before the panic of terror and horror filled the penthouse as the guest ignited a red crossguard lightsaber.

“You’d think he’d planned this,” whispered Rey.

“Guy’s got a flair for the dramatics,” agreed Finn.

When the figure of Kylo Ren laid eyes on the pair, finally finding who he was seeking out (many of the guests by now had fled in terror), he pointed his lightsaber at them.

“I suppose you think taking out my special TIE forces warrants a call for celebration?” he growled.

“Something like that,” said Rey with a smug grin as she reached her hand to her side discreetly.

A snarl preluded Kylo Ren’s lunge for her and the sudden appearance of a blue blade gave Finn his cue to get out of the way. He watched as enemies locked blades with each other for a brief moment, realizing that the reason Rey selected her dress was because of the fabric’s allowance of movement and wondering if she had caught wind of a plot for the Supreme Leader himself to crash the party. He then moved to the side, rushing to where he knew blasters were hidden underneath the refreshment tables – just in case – and emerged with a blaster rifle ready to fire.

He looked around, knowing that there was no way that Ren came here alone. There was possibly a First Order fleet outside, waiting to shoot out the entire building.

“What exactly are you supposed to be?” asked Rey. “Vader?”

Ren barked a laugh before returning to seriousness. “A reminder of who I am, where I come from. I couldn’t just barge in without a costume, now could I?”

And after taking a better glimpse at the costume, Finn realized that Ren was indeed channeling his grandfather. The mask wasn’t quite right, not needing a life support unit and all, but it had that patent black sheen and almost skeletal structure that Darth Vader had been famous for. Abandoning his usual attire, Ren selected some sort of black armor and a stiff cape that trailed behind him.

At a sprint, Rey launched herself over the table that separated her from Ren, their weapons meeting with a hiss. Now that the kyber crystal had found a new home in the body of her old quarterstaff, Rey finally had a weapon that was more suited to herself. Ren slashed at her side, but Rey quickly jumped out of the way, tossing her mask to the floor and returning to the fray with more ferocity than ever.

Checking the room one more time to make sure that no stragglers were left, Finn secured the room, intending to help Rey corner the party-crasher. He knew that blaster bolts would not be much use here – he had seen the kind of power Ren had firsthand on Jakku – but if Rey distracted him enough so that his focus was solely on her, Finn might just have a shot at getting a hit in.

He realized quickly that the best way to get Ren cornered was to push him into the black room. The only escape out of it was back through the hall that led to the other rooms. With a look, Finn darted his eyes back and forth between Rey and the doors leading into the dark until he caught her eye for a moment. A split-second glance between them told him that Rey was picking up on his idea.

She spun away from the latest slashing movement made by Ren, but the lightsaber caught against the loose material at the end of her dress trail. It disintegrated in a hiss, leaving a distinctly burnt smell in its wake and a bit of loose and singed fabric on the floor.

Their lightsabers continued their dance of meeting and disengaging, both of them dodging out of the way when a strike was nearing too close. But Ren was doing exactly what they wanted him to do, and he ended up in the black room. The only disadvantage to being here, Finn realized too late, was that the darkness of the room gave Ren the added cloak of camouflage when his costume nearly blended in with the blackness of the room.

The lightsaber, at least, was a dead giveaway of his location.

Catching on to the pair’s idea, Ren struck at Rey’s arm, but when she moved away from the strike, he followed up by kicking her in the shins. The impact of the strike sent Rey falling backwards, her lightsaber staff falling to her feet. Finn shot a blaster bolt at Ren, but the lightsaber deflected it.

Scrambling to get up, Rey continually dodged Ren’s strikes. In her concentration to not get hit, she left her staff on the floor, forgotten for the moment.

In her stead, Finn reached for it, igniting the plasma blade and rushing at Ren, intending to run him through from behind while his attention was occupied elsewhere. Rey just needed to keep dodging those strikes until he was in the right position.

But last-minute, Ren spotted him, and just as Finn was about to aim the saber staff for his abdomen, Ren backed away. It was another round of striking and dodging, but with their joint efforts, Finn and Rey (now holding Finn’s blaster) had him cornered at last. Up against the old antique ebony clock, Finn mused as he looked at his trapped foe that Ren’s time may finally be up.

Finn aimed for Ren’s shoulder, cursing as his enemy moved himself just out of the way. The blade made contact with the old clock, running right through the face of it. He struck again, aiming for Ren’s chest this time.

The blade went through his enemy, but instead of a solid presence, he found that the blade felt as if it passed through nothing but air. He hit the clock again.

The sound it made as Finn removed the blade was eerie and chilling. It somehow seemed louder than ever before, though it may have had to do with how close in proximity they were to it this time. 

The image of Kylo Ren faded away, as if he had been nothing but a ghost. Startled, Finn looked around, trying to see if somehow, Ren had gotten away using a trick of the Force.

“He’s gone, Finn,” said Rey. “Actually, I don’t think he was ever here to begin with. Coward,” she spat.

Puzzled, Finn knitted his brows together, trying to understand the situation. “So… wait. He’s making himself seem like he’s here when he’s not? With the Force?”

She nodded. “Luke did something like that on Crait. Before he vanished.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Biting her bottom lip, Rey looked a little uncomfortable. “There’s a lot I haven’t told you,” she admitted. Then, she looked around the suite, noting all the trash and abandoned property that the guests had left. Lando would probably give the all clear soon and the halls would fill again, though she knew that something like what just happened would kill the mood for many and some of the guests would leave.

The white room still was pretty clean…

She linked their hands together. “How about I tell you while we dance some more?”


End file.
